Ropes & Gray Names Gretchen Greene Chief of AI Strategy
Ropes & Gray LLP has hired its first Chief of Artificial Intelligence Strategy, appointing Gretchen Greene to lead firmwide AI adoption and innovation. This places the firm among the earliest AmLaw 25 firms to formalize AI leadership at the executive level.
Gretchen brings deep experience from Meta, where she led AI adoption for policy and legal teams. She is also a former Ropes & Gray tax and benefits attorney, giving her a practical view of how AI can create measurable client value without missing compliance or risk requirements.
In the new role, Gretchen will partner with Chief Information Officer Marsha Stein to drive a cohesive AI strategy across global offices and practices. The mandate is clear: accelerate adoption, improve client outcomes, and operationalize governance.
What Leaders Said
Julie Jones, Chair: "The AI revolution demands bold leadership and innovative thinking. Ropes & Gray has been leading the legal industry, and Gretchen will help us catalyze our early action to deliver differentiated value to our clients."
Akhil Sethi, Chief Operating Officer: "Her leadership in driving global AI transformation at Meta and in building best practices and delivering measurable results make her uniquely qualified. Gretchen's experience advising and influencing executives and policymakers, combined with her technical depth and client-focused approach, will be instrumental in accelerating innovation for firm and client impact."
Gretchen Greene: "I am excited to return to Ropes & Gray at a pivotal moment for legal AI. My goal is to help the firm remain at the forefront of AI adoption, and I look forward to collaborating with our lawyers, clients, and technical teams to build upon the already strong culture of innovation at the firm."
Why This Matters for Executive Teams
- Clear ownership: A dedicated AI leader signals accountability for outcomes, risk, and transformation.
- Cross-functional execution: Pairing AI strategy with the CIO tightens alignment between legal work, technology, data, and security.
- Operational impact: AI is being tied to client value, speed, accuracy, and measurable ROI-not pilots for the sake of pilots.
- Governance by design: Thought leadership in policy and standards moves from theory into practice.
Playbook You Can Apply Now
- Appoint a single executive owner for AI with a mandate across practices and operations.
- Define 3-5 measurable outcomes (cycle time, quality metrics, client satisfaction, cost-to-serve, risk reduction).
- Stand up an AI governance board covering data, model usage, privacy, audit, and incident response.
- Adopt proven standards (risk management, documentation, testing) and operationalize them across teams.
- Fund a portfolio: fast-win use cases, foundational data work, and enabling platforms.
- Integrate with the CIO/CTO for security, vendor review, and deployment at scale.
- Build skills: role-based training for lawyers, KM, IT, risk, and client teams.
- Communicate with clients on what is used, how it is controlled, and the benefits they will see.
High-Value Legal Use Cases Moving to Scale
- Contract drafting aids, clause comparison, and negotiation prep.
- Research accelerators with source grounding and citation checks.
- E-discovery summarization, privilege review support, and issue spotting.
- Knowledge management: precedent retrieval, playbooks, and internal Q&A.
- Matter intake triage, conflicts checks support, and client-ready summaries.
- Time entry review and billing anomaly detection.
Standards and Policy Signals
Executives should align programs with emerging frameworks and regulations. The NIST AI Risk Management Framework is a practical baseline for risk controls, while the EU AI Act overview outlines regulatory expectations that will influence global operations.
Gretchen's Edge
Beyond leadership roles, Gretchen has helped define standards and best practices across sectors like clinical medicine, biotech manufacturing, and research institutions. That mix of policy influence, technical depth, and legal practice experience is the right profile to turn AI from experimentation into firmwide value.
Build Capability Fast
If you are setting up an executive AI program, accelerate your team's skills with role-based training and certifications. Explore curated options by function at Complete AI Training - Courses by Job or review recognized pathways at Popular AI Certifications.
Bottom Line
Ropes & Gray's appointment of Gretchen Greene signals serious intent: measurable client value, disciplined governance, and scale. For executive teams, the move offers a template-centralize leadership, align with the CIO, set clear metrics, and operationalize AI across the business.
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